Falling in Love with France

            I first fell in love with France when I was 15 years old. Now, eight years later, at 23, I can honestly say it is the longest and most fulfilling relationship I have had in my life. Like in any relationship, we’ve certainly had our ups and downs. But my love for this country is something I am sure will last me a lifetime.

No matter where you go, or what you do, it is hard to resist the charms of a place like France. It is a place where what you eat isn’t just a meal, but a way to celebrate and enjoy life. It is a place where Sundays are sacred. They are family days that no amount of work will interrupt. It is a place where the concept of “fast friends” does not exist, but instead you make friends for a lifetime. It is a place that celebrates its long and twisted history with an appropriate amount of reverence, remembrance, and even sometimes regret. For us Americans, the privilege of living in France is one that only a few us will come to know and understand. For me, a lot of my experience was seemingly a travel back in time, to an age when life was simpler, more traditional. When the pace of a day wasn’t measured in emails sent or text messages received, but rather in walks taken along the river or conversations held with friends and neighbors. For those of you who have been lucky enough to live in France, you will understand the transformative process I have gone through. You gain a deeper appreciation of life and love, and greater understanding of what it truly means to live in the now.

            As I sit here and think back on the past seven months, I feel privileged to have had an experience that made me grow and change to the extent that it has. I came over knowing absolutely nothing about how to interact with a classroom of students, yet I am leaving a teacher. I can only hope that I have touched some of my students’ lives in the way that they have touched mine. Some of them, I will remember forever.

For those of you reading this who have followed my journey from the beginning, you will know that my teaching path was a little more than rocky. There were times when I would simply break down and cry because I felt useless and unheard. Times when I felt so lonely and out of place I couldn’t imagine what had possessed me to take this job in the first place. But one of the great things about teaching is that the moments of light seriously outshine the moments of darkness, and it is the days I left the classroom smiling that I will always remember.

Of my time spent in Strasbourg, there are certain memories I will cherish forever. Like the Thursday afternoon cappuccino and pastry date I kept with some of my students, or the nights spent roaming the city streets taking in everything this age-old place has to offer. I will miss being able to eat chocolate for breakfast, digging into a millefeuille that melts in my mouth, or eating tarte flambée until I feel like I might throw up. I will miss the soirées with newly made French friends, the local shop owners who know me by name, and the times I had entire conversations in French without even realizing it. I will miss eating mousse au chocolat from a jar and having it still be amazing. I will miss the funny way French people continue to wear bonnets, long-sleeved shirts, jeans and boots even when it’s 80 degrees outside. I will certainly miss how unique I was, being the only American in a small town in Alsace, and being told my accent is “trop sexy”. I will miss hearing people speak Alsatian and giggling to myself because it sounds like some sort of strange German from an alien planet. I’ll miss the looks I used to get when I would have quick-paced conversations in English, like I possessed some incredible and mystical talent. But mostly, I’ll miss the people who have touched my life, and changed so much of who I am. It is those people, you know who you are, that made this experience what it was.

And so, as I prepare to leave this place, my adopted home and love of my life, filled to the brim with wonderful memories and a new outlook on living, I know one thing is for certain: I will be back.